Yes, You Do Need a Theme
Last week we looked at the need to ditch all the back story in our first scene (well, actually the…
Eek! EBooks!
We’ve been looking at the explosive trend of eBook distribution and the decline of traditional publishing these last few weeks….
Don’t “Try and” Do Anything!
One of my big pet peeves is the “try and” construction, which many writers fall victim to because we have…
Hold Back the Back Story
Because I read hundreds of first chapters of novels a year as a writing coach, contest judge, and copyeditor, I’ve…
Doors to Publishing That Were Never Open Before
Last week, Mark Coker, founder of the eBook distributions site Smashwords, posted a blog summarizing his company’s performance over 2011…
Speaker Tags ~ You Can’t Cough Speech
Speaker tags can only use verbs that can be used to create speech. Writers often get creative in their speaker…
The Place Where All Stories Begin
I thought it would be appropriate to start the New Year focusing on beginnings. Most authors know that the beginning…
Insights on EBook Trends
I touched last week on traditional publishing’s downfall. I want to share some points I gleaned from the Smashwords eBook…
Hear That Sound?
Bricks tumbling to the ground, glass shattering? That’s the sound of the traditional publishing industry crashing. We can hide our…